Management Lessons
by MaidenMoonshine
Summary: Tony is left behind to take care of the team - including getting them to a time management seminar. Abby does not want to attend. One-shot based on a prompt from fiftyshadeswritergal.


**Hi! Here is another prompt story to brighten your days. This will only be one chapter, but I hope that you will review anyway! I have definitely enjoyed writing it! Thanks to fiftyshadeswritergal for the prompt and proofreading, and to KrisShannon for proofreading as well!  
**

_**Prompt from fiftyshadeswritergal - Gibbs goes out of town with Ziva for an information gathering mission. Gibbs leaves Tony in charge since he is the senior field agent. Abby is in a bad mood because she wanted to go on the trip with Gibbs and Ziva instead of having them bring evidence back to her. So when she is told she and the team have to attend time management training per the director, she refuses. Jen tells Tony to take care of it and make sure Abby shows up to the training. What does Tony do?**_

**Have a great day! Enjoy!  
**

...

"Ziva and I will be back by Friday. Thursday - tomorrow - the rest of the team - including Abby - are to be at that seminar. Jen's been breathing down my neck about it. Be there or else," Gibbs warned Tony as he grabbed his gun and headed toward the elevator.

"Don't worry, Boss, I've got it," Tony said. Gibbs paused as he waited for the elevator and looked at Tony for a long moment before giving a satisfied nod.

"I think you do, DiNozzo," he said with a slight slap to his senior field agent's shoulder. "Just ... keep and eye on McGee and Abby for me."

"Will do!"

_Ding!_

The elevator doors opened and Gibbs stepped inside.

"Behave," he said. Then he was gone, leaving Tony with a heart full of pride. Instead of sending Tony off with Ziva to get the evidence on what was sure to be a long trip, Gibbs had left him to hold down the fort.

_He trusts me._

The thought spurred him into action. He would be worthy of that trust. First item of the day would be checking how Abby was doing with both the evidence and the departure of her friends.

_Should be easy!_

Ha!

The second that Tony entered the lab he realized that Abby was upset. Bert was shoved into a corner, her favourite spinny chair was in the middle of the floor - as if someone had shoved it wildly careening in that direction - and Abby's music was gone. A Caf-Pow! with an "I love you" sticky note from Gibbs was left pointedly ignored on the edge of her desk. Tony had to blink hard before he came to terms with the fact that she was willingly drinking bottled water rather than touch her favourite bribe.

"Hey, Abs," he ventured.

Her back did not answer.

"Abs?"

Silence.

"Abby! What is wrong?"

There was a dramatic pause as Abby spun around walked over to him, big sad eyes staring at him.

"He LEFT me, Tony!"

"Who? Your boyfriend?! That worthless ...!"

"No! Gibbs!"

"Of course. He left me too. Isn't this great? We could ..."

"No, it ISN'T 'great', Tony! I've been wanting to go to Haggler, Michigan, forever and now that he has a case that he needs to collect evidence for from Haggler, the home base of my FAVOURITE forensic journal, does he remember me? No! Who in this agency works the most with evidence? ME! At least, I do a lot. And who would be really good at gathering the evidence properly? ME! But who does he take? NOT ME!"

"Well ... did you as..."

"Did I ASK?! I begged! Pleaded! Promised! He said no, Tony! NO! And now he expects me to stay back here and work!"

"Yes, he expects all of us to," Tony reminded her. "Oh, except for that time management seminar training session thingy that we are to attend tomorrow. We'll get a break then, Abs."

"HA!" Abby laughed bitterly. "I hate those boring old seminars. I had a friend tell me that this one was really bad. And you know what? I'm not going to go."

Tony stared at her like she had suddenly announced that she had created aliens in test tubes.

"Uh, this seminar has mandatory attendance - enforced by the director herself!"

Abby scrunched up her face and turned back to her computers.

"You'll see!" she muttered rebelliously.

_I'm sure I will_, Tony groaned to himself as he backed away from the seething young lady in an attempt to let her cool off on her own. _Why did I ever think this would be EASY?!_

...

"Problem, DiNozzo?" Jenny Shepard asked as she noted the nervous agent looking around anxiously outside of the conference room door.

"Uh ..." Tony started, still busily looking for Abby. Suddenly he realized who was talking to him and hurriedly changed his attention to her. "Not ... really, ma'am."

Jenny narrowed her eyes suspiciously, not trusting his answer. She stepped around him and peeked into the conference room.

"Tony, where's Abby?"

"I don't know."

"Is she at work?"

"As far as I know, yes. I haven't seen her yet today."

"And she knows that this is a mandatory course?"

"Yeeess."

"Then why is she not here?"

"Um ..."

"Agent DiNozzo!" Jenny said sharply. "I can see quite easily that there is an issue here. What is it?"

"Abby ... didn't exactly ... well, you see ..." Tony started and stopped repeatedly, trying to think of a way of stating the situation that would not result with Abby in trouble.

"Oh," Jenny suddenly said, understanding lighting up her face. "I imagine that she is quite disappointed that she did not get to go with Gibbs to Haggler, the home town of the 'Forensic Forecasts - What The Scientific Future Holds'?"

"Yes." It was a relief to be able to give a direct answer.

"I did assume that he would take her, but he must have thought that he and Ziva would be able to gather the evidence themselves in a time-efficient manner."

"I guess."

Jenny sighed sympathetically. "Tony, this training session is mandatory. I do need you, as acting head agent of the team, to go get Abby up here. I have a call that I need to take in MTAC in five minutes or I would go myself."

"That's okay," Tony replied reluctantly. "I'll ... go get her."

Jenny paused him by placing her hand on his arm for a second.

"Good luck."

He smiled wryly. "Thanks."

...

"Abigail!"

The tone was so like Gibbs' that Abby froze for a second before realizing that it was actually Tony standing behind her. She shrugged off her shock and continued to work. She was trying for nonchalance but her nervous anticipation of the coming confrontation was clear to the agent.

"Hi, Tony. Got some new evidence or something?" she said, pointedly keeping her focus on a test tube in her hand.

"I'll go with 'something'. Why are you not upstairs in that conference room right now?" Tony demanded, putting on his best attempt at an authoritative tone. Funny, he could use it in the field all the time but using it with Abby was making him uncomfortable. Not that it mattered what he wanted or liked to do - he needed to do this no matter what.

_Please don't make me drag you up the stairs kicking and screaming!_

"I'm busy," Abby replied. She waited a second before adding under her breath, "Obviously."

That did it.

Gibbs had left him in charge - trusted him to be in charge. And now, as a secondary concern, the director had ordered that he do his job in regards to Abby. And now she was deciding to be stubborn and sulky and on top of that, sassy?

Tony swung her around by the elbow, gently but firmly - just like Gibbs.

"Now listen to me, Abby. You've had your time to feel disappointed. Now, grow up!"

The two of them battled with their eyes, but there was no way that Abby was going to win. Tony was determined.

"Head up those stairs right now and go to that conference!" Tony demanded as he noticed Abby's gaze begin to falter a little.

"Or what?" she mumbled, not really fighting anymore but not wanting to give in too easily.

"Or ... I'll ... call Gibbs right now and ... AND I'll ground you!"

"You can't do that!" she protested.

"Yes, I can - at least here at work."

"But ...!" she spluttered.

"AND Gibbs would fully support me!" Tony added, trying to sound confident. He definitely hoped that Gibbs would. And by Abby's demeanor, he guessed that she believed him. She sighed and her shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Now, come on, don't make this difficult," Tony coaxed. "I don't want to have any issues between us while working. I make a ton of mistakes, I know, but I need you to respect what I say when I'm in charge."

"Okay," she mumbled, setting aside the test tube and taking off her protective glasses. She slowly took off her lab coat and hung it on its hook. She finally looked up at him and made eye contact.

"Sorry, Tony," she said softly, just the slightest waver in her voice. All of her body language spoke of repentance.

"Hey, it's fine," Tony said, feeling his heart melt and giving her a side hug as he pulled her out of the lab and into the elevator. "After this is done, the three of us - you, McGee, and I - will go out for supper together."

She smiled weakly, still uncomfortable but starting to regain her bounce. "Sure." The elevator dinged and the two of them got off and headed to the conference room. Just before entering, Abby stopped Tony and crushed him in a hug.

"Thanks for calling me on my stubbornness," she whispered.

"Anytime, Abs, anytime."

...

The next day Gibbs and Ziva were welcomed back from their short absence.

"How did things go, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.

"Great," Tony said. After all, he and McGee had been able to follow up on some important leads after the training session, Abby had found a previously neglected fiber on some evidence sent in by the police, and their dinner together had been enjoyable. The only thing that had put a damper on the day was the fact that they missed Ziva's participation.

"Really," Gibbs said, but there was a note of questioning.

"We were all at the training session, got lots of work done, and now we're ready to tackle what you and Ziva learned," Tony said.

Gibbs jerked his head to the side, motioning for Tony to step aside with him while McGee, Abby, and Ziva visited.

"I heard what happened."

"What ... happened?"

"About the time management training."

"Oh, why did the director tell you? I had it under control!" Tony burst out, then paused at the smirk on Gibbs' face. "What? I did!"

"Jen didn't tell me."

"Then ... McGee?"

"No."

"You could tell from my body language?"

Gibbs shook his head with a smile. "Abby called last night. Confessed. She felt bad that she forced you into that position. She had already grounded herself from her music for the week but said that she still felt too guilty and needed to tell me."

"She did all that?"

"Yep. And I'll be dealing with her a little later on down in her lab. Maybe you could keep the others away for fifteen minutes or so."

"Boss, please," Tony said softly with a glance over his shoulder at his three "siblings", who he would do anything to protect. "She's already learned her lesson. It was no big issue. She won't do it again."

_Please don't make me a liar, Abby!_

Gibbs just kept smiling as he slapped Tony's shoulder with what seemed to be affection.

"You're loyal, DiNozzo. Never lose that."

"So you won't ...?"

"She'll be grounded at home and work for a week instead."

"But ..."

Gibbs looked Tony dead in the eye. "When I'm gone, you are me. She needs to learn and accept that." He gave Tony a wry smile. "No, it's not fun to see her in trouble, but at least she tries harder to avoid it in the future. And trust me, the upset Abby on the phone last night needs consistency."

"I wish there was an easier way," Tony mumbled.

"Just wait until you have kids!" Gibbs snorted.

Tony winced at the thought. "Maybe I won't have any."

Gibbs shook his head seriously. "Tony, trust me, they're well worth the bother. You are. And by the way, I'm proud of you. Good job."

And then Gibbs was back in the group, handing out assignments, whispering into a momentarily subdued Abby's ear, answering the phone.

Tony stayed where he was for a moment, just revelling in his mentor's affirming words.

"DiNozzo! Are you going to stay there all day or are you going to get in here and tell me what you learned while I was gone?"

It was time to get back to work.

And it was awfully nice not to have to be the boss.

But the biggest thing that he learned during Gibbs' absence was not time management skills - it was team management skills.

...

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